Talk:Satsuki Shishio/@comment-83.26.191.38-20150516143731/@comment-24156032-20150531025857
Sorry for the late reply, dunno if you're still following this thread, haha. I honestly believe that Shishio and Suzume's relationship was built on too shaky of foundations for it to last no matter what. Neither of them had any communication with each other and they never really officially said they were dating, exactly. Suzume never confronted Shishio about her assumptions, nor did Shishio confront Suzume about what was going on in his life. A lot of the confusion and problems in their relationship arose from that. I agree that, theoretically, their relationship could ''have worked. However, I feel that the characters were simply in too different stages of life. Suzume needed more of someone who could be with her when she needed help (which let's be honest, was quite often), whereas Shishio wanted more of someone he could just be with outside of his normal life. I think the Christmas promise scene really demonstrated this, as Suzume wanted someone to be there with her, but Shishio had other responsibilities preventing him from being there. That's a pretty good analogy for their entire relationship, as time and time again Suzume is off doing something with her friends because Shishio simply has no time to really be out spending with her. And the scarce time they ''do ''get, they have to be secret about. The barrier between them was too large, I think, for their relationship to really work out. I don't believe that Mamura's words had a whole lot of impact on Shishio, but I think combined with Yukichi's they did take their toll. If Suzume and his relationship hadn't been found out by Yukichi, though, I still feel like they would have broken up eventually. As I said in my previous paragraph, I feel that the complete lack of synergy would have led to problems anyhow. Even if it had persisted, after high school I don't think it would've really worked out. Assuming she went off to college, their communication would be further hindered, not to mention the fact that even before this, the two have very little alone time together. It's like they're constantly being supervised by their parents, as they can't do anything in public together lest someone find them out. I feel that the secrecy of the relationship is just too problematic for it to have lasted. Imagine if Shishio had never broken it off with Suzume at that point. Eventually, I still believe that one or the other would've recognized the lack of the two of them actually interacting. Outside of class, what time do they really spend together? Not lunch, not breaks, not really after school--only weekends, and even that sometimes doesn't happen. He's a man who is so tied up in work he can't even take off the evening of the day before Christmas. Throughout the series, Suzume spends so much time away from Shishio that I'm surprised their relationship lasted as long as it did. If you really think about it, what did they do together? They went to the aquarium, they went to the shrine, and then there was that time Shishio was in the raccoon costume during the school festival. What else? Not really anything. Think about the timeline that this happened between, too. Suzume transfers into the school year around two weeks before the "seasonal uniform change," which is traditionally on October 1st. So Suzume comes into the school around September, and it is shown the weekend of the seasonal uniform change that Suzume really does like Shishio (that's the tutoring scene). Suzume confesses around 7 chapters later. The school sports festival is usually held in November, and then the shrine bit happens for New Year's. The shrine was chapter 43. They break up in chapter 47. Their relationship lasted a few months. Also, the aquarium becoming a date was impromptu--if you remember, Suzume initially wanted to invite Yuyuka, Tsurutani, and Kameyoshi, too. The two of them rarely were together, not to mention that from what we were shown, they know very little about each other. Does Shishio know any of Suzume's interests? Hell, do we, as the audience, know any of her interests? The entire time all she seems to do is be infatuated with someone. She says that she likes that clay-cutting minigame at the festival, and we know her to be bad at cooking, too. We also know she gets bad grades. But what other than that? We understand her from a deeper place than something as simple as her hobbies, but does Shishio? Does Mamura? As I understand it, to a degree, Mamura does understand. He understands her need for someone to be there for her. Why can I say this? Because he ''is ''always there for her. Even when she leaves to go back to Shishio, he doesn't just leave her. He ''forces her to go despite not really wanting to, and he then also mails her that he appreciates the invite to Okinawa. He forces her because he knows she needs to go through this, but he also doesn't just leave her from that point on. He also has shown just how much he cares for her, whether ir be the penguin during their aquarium trip or like I said, that mail that he sent her. He doesn't really seem to know her hobbies. But he does know that she loves seafood, and he does take her to Tsukiji for his own birthday. Time and time again he has gone out of his way to do something for her that doesn't exactly benefit him. I believe Shishio has done the same, at least to a certain degree. Because while it definitely seems like he's at least tried to do so--Christmas being the case in point there--he never really actually does, or at least not nearly as much as Mamura has. He does go out of his way to accompany her during the cultural festival, yes. He also invites her to the aquarium. But Mamura does that as well. And the shrine, well. You could argue that Shishio was being very considerate of Suzume here, but he also leaves her alone in the hotel room. He's hesistant to actually be in a relationship with her at that point. Mamura is never once hesistant in his desire to be with her (or if he is, please feel free to tell me when that was), though I'm not sure you could actually consider him thoughtful in his fighting with Shishio. But my point is this: Does Shishio truly understand Suzume? I don't think he does. And I think that's why their already shaky relationship came crashing down. If he had, and had she understood him as well, then I think they could have made it work. But as it stands, they didn't. And I believe that's why things didn't work out.